Wake-Up Call: The trickle-down economics of an open Senate seat

On Monday, Governor Bill Ritter offered Colorado journalists an advance look at what we can expect from the next legislative session: belt-tightening.

But there's one sure, if risky, way to fill Colorado's coffers: Sell the Senate seat that could soon be vacated when Senator Ken Salazar moves to a Secretary of the Interior post -- if that's where the Obama cabinet carousel ultimately stops.

If a governor can ask a million bucks for a vacant Senate seat in Illinois, what's the going rate in Colorado? "I'm not answering that one," Ritter told me. But one thing's certain: Pundits will get a lot of free entertainment speculating who could fill that Senate spot. -- Patricia Calhoun

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